Ozone is an allotropic form of the element oxygen that functions as a powerful oxidant, bleach and water purifier. Upon contact with water ozone decomposes rapidly to produce free radicals that may be effectively utilized to treat industrial waste. In fact, in the presence of water, ozone acts more rapidly than hydrogen peroxide, chlorine and sulfur dioxide. Bacterial and viral disinfection utilizing ozone is up to 5000 times more rapid than comparable treatments utilizing chlorine.
Despite its effectiveness the efficiency of ozone in treating hazardous aqueous and vapor phase organic compounds in water is extremely low for a number of reasons. These include relatively low ozone solubility in water, rapid ozone decomposition, high gas/liquid mass transfer resistance and non-selective oxidation. Further, ozone gas transfer promotes the loss of volatile organics. Additionally, for vapor phase organic compound destruction from air or gas streams, conventional aqueous phase ozonation is often not possible because of low solubility of those organics in water.
Recognizing these shortcomings, other ozonation methods have been proposed as set forth in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,793,931 to Stevens et al. and 4,940,808 to Schultz et al. In the Stevens et al. patent, the photodegradation of solid or liquid phase waste organics by extraction of the organics in a perfluorinated solvent including a photo-oxidant such as ozone is disclosed. In Schultz et al., a process for ozonation of saturated organic compounds by utilizing an ozone-containing gas in halogenated hydrocarbon coolants such as fluorinated methane or ethane is disclosed.
Other prior art references of interest also relating to ozonation include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,430,228 to Ciambrone et al.; 5,457,269 to Schonberg and 5,580,458 to Yamasaki et al. While effective for their intended purpose, such approaches may be improved upon to provide more efficient degradation or destruction of the vapor phase organic compounds at lower overall cost.